The Sixth Grandfather: Black Elk's teachings given to John G. Neihardt 9780803265646, 9780803216648

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BISON

BOOKS

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Foreword by Hilda Nethardt Petri

Black Elk’s Teachings

Given to John G. Nethardt

Edited and with an Introduction by

Raymond J. DeMallie

University of Nebraska Press

Lincoln and London

Publication of this book was aided by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Copyright 1984 by the University of Nebraska Press All materials from the interviews and other previously unpublished writings by members of the Neihardt family copyright 1984 by the John G. Neihardt Trust All rights reserved Manufactured in the United States of America First Bison Book printing: 1985

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Neihardt, John Gneisenau, 1881-1973 The sixth grandfather. Bibliography: p. Includes index.

1. Black Elk, 1863-1950. 2. Oglala Indians — Religion and mythology. 3. Oglala Indians — Philosophy. 4. Indians of North America — Great Plains — Religion and mythology. 5. Indians of North America — Great Plains — Philosophy. 6. Oglala Indians — Biography. I. Black Elk, 1863-1950. II. DeMallie, Raymond J., 1946Il. Title.

E99.03B536 1984 970.004’97[B] 83-14452 ISBN 0-8032-1664-5

ISBN 0-8032-6564-6 (pbk.)

To the Sixth Grandfather: The spirit of mankind

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS AND MAPS, xv FOREWORD BY HILDA NEIHARDT PETRI, Xvi PREFACE, XIX

A Note on the Editing, xxiv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS, Xxvil

PART ONE NICHOLAS BLACK ELK AND

JOHN G. NEIHARDT: AN INTRODUCTION, I PART TWO

THE 1931 INTERVIEWS, 75

INTRODUCTION, 77 Black Elk’s Vision, 93

I. BOYHOOD (1863-72), IOI

The old men tell their ages, 101 Black Elk tells of his parentage, 102

Fire Thunder tells of the Fetterman fight, 103

Vil Contents Black Elk tells how Creeping cured the snowblinds, 104.

Standing Bear tells how the Indians felt about the whites, 106 Black Tail Deer tells how the Indians felt about the whites, 106 Fire Thunder tells how the Indians felt about the whites, 106 Black Elk tells about boys’ games, 106

Standing Bear tells about fighting the white soldiers, 107

Black Elk tells about camping on the Rosebud, 107

Fire Thunder tells about the Wagon Box fight, 107 Black Elk tells of hearing voices, 108

Fire Thunder tells of the attack on the wagon train, 108

Standing Bear tells of the death of High Shirt’s mother, 109 Black Elk tells of his first vision, 109

2. THE GREAT VISION (1873), Il Black Elk falls ill, 11

The two men take Black Elk up into the clouds, 114

Black Elk is shown the horses of the four directions, 114 The bay horse leads Black Elk

to the cloud tip of the six grandfathers, 115

Black Elk walks the black sacred road from west to east and vanquishes the spirit in the water, 119

Contents 1X Black Elk walks the red sacred road from south to north, 122 Black Elk receives the healing herb of the north, and the sacred tree is established at the center of the nation’s hoop, 128 Black Elk kills the dog in the flames and receives the healing herb of the west, 131

Black Elk is taken to the center of the earth and receives the daybreak star herb, 133 Black Elk receives the soldier weed of destruction, 135

Black Elk returns to the six grandfathers, 137

The spotted eagle guides Black Elk home, 141 3. YOUTH (1873-75), 143

Standing Bear tells of the buffalo hunt, 143 Black Elk tells of the hunt and of games of endurance, 147 Black Elk tells about his illness, 14-9

Black Elk’s grandfather explains the meaning of Wasichu, 150

Black Elk’s grandfather makes him a bow and arrows, 152

The visit to Fort Robinson, 152 Camping in the Black Hills, 155

Standing Bear tells of the movement of bands in spring 1874, 158

Black Elk tells of Chips’s warning and the return to Fort Robinson, 158 The story of Watanye, 161

x Contents 4. WALKING THE BLACK ROAD (1875—76), 162

Black Elk tells about the 1875 Black Hills council, 162

Standing Bear tells about the Black Hills, 163 Black Elk tells of joining Crazy Horse’s camp and the killing of the Crow horse thief, 164 Black Elk’s father’s story of the 1875 Black Hills council, 168

Black Elk tells about attacking a wagon train near War Bonnet Creek, 170 Iron Hawk tells about the 1875 Black Hills council, 171

Standing Bear tells about the 1875 Black Hills council, 172

Standing Bear tells about the sun dance on the Rosebud, June 1876, 173

Iron Hawk tells about the Rosebud battle, 174 Standing Bear tells about the dead soldiers, 177 Black Elk tells about the bear medicine ceremony, 178 Black Elk tells about the Custer battle, 180

Standing Bear tells about the Custer battle, 184 Iron Hawk tells about the Custer battle, 190 Black Elk tells about the dead soldiers and the siege of Reno’s men, 193 5. THE SCATTERING OF THE PEOPLE (1876-81), 196 The celebration of Custer’s defeat, 196 Fleeing from the soldiers, 198

The return to Fort Robinson and the killing of Crazy Horse, 202 Crazy Horse, 203

Contents xl The escape to Canada and fighting with the Crows, 204 Black Elk finds buffalo during the famine, 207

The return to the United States, 210 Living in fear of the Thunder-beings, 213 6. WALKING THE RED ROAD (1881-85), 215 The horse dance, 215

The move to Pine Ridge, 226 The vision of the Thunder-beings, 227 The heyoka ceremony, 232 Black Elk’s first cure, 235

The buffalo ceremony, 240 The elk ceremony, 242

7. SEEING THE WORLD OF THE WASICHUS (1886-89), 245 Buffalo Bill?’s Wild West show, 245

The trip across the great water, 247 Grandmother England’s Jubilee, 249 Wandering in Europe, 251

Spirit journey home, 252 Return to Pine Ridge, 254

8. THE GHOST DANCE AND WOUNDED KNEE (1889-91), 256 The Messiah’s dance, 256

Black Elk’s ghost dance visions, 260

Trouble with the soldiers, 266 The Wounded Knee massacre, 269 Black Elk is wounded, 276

Xi Contents The camp in the stronghold, 278 The end of the fighting, 281 9. TEACHING FLAMING RAINBOW (1931), 283

Origin of the peace pipe, 283 Prayer to go with the vision, 285 The pipe, 288

The Indians and the white people, 288

The sacred hoop, 290 | Origin of the names Oglala and Brulێ, 291

Moon, sun, and stars, 291 Buffalo names, 293

Making the tree bloom, 293

Ceremony on Harney Peak, 294 PART THREE

THE 1944 INTERVIEWS, 297 INTRODUCTION, 299 10. DECEMBER §, 307 Slow Buffalo’s council, 307

The Great Race and the origin of the bow and arrow, 309 The origin of fire making, 311

Dispersal of the people and the origin of warfare, 311

Discovery of the horse, 314 The war party saved by the skull, 316

The Indians’ relationship to the animals, 317 The seven important things, 317 The domestication of dogs, 318

Contents Xi The Minnesota Sioux, 318 How man came to the earth, 318 II. DECEMBER 6, 319 Lakota government, 319 Games and the education of children, 323 Moving camp, 326

Red Hail and the two suitors, 326 I2. DECEMBER 7, 333 The killing of sixty-six Flatheads, 333

Wooden Cup, the prophet, 337 Pouting Butte, 341

The story of High Horse’s courting, 346

The young man who pretended to be a ghost, 346 13. DECEMBER 8, 348

Crow Butte, 348 The Shoshones kill thirty Lakotas, 350 The woman four times widowed, 352 The dog who saved the people, 357 The dog whose warning was not heeded, 358

The Cheyennes run the Shoshones over a bank, 360 Flying By’s most difficult experience, 361

The old bull’s last fight, 362

14. DECEMBER II, 364

The Oglala war party that met a Crazy Buffalo, 364

River names, 366 Little Powder rescues his family from the Shoshones, 366

XIV Contents Sharp Nose makes peace between the Arapahoes and the Crows, 371 Telling the future, 376 15. DECEMBER 12, 377

The Santee owl wizard, 377 Caring for babies, 379 Twins, 380 Burial and mourning, 381 The girl who was buried alive, 383

Eating and giving thanks to the food, 386 Making a candidate (wicasa yatapika), 389 16. DECEMBER 13, 391

The two murderers, 391 Insanity, 394 Falling Star, 3935

APPENDIX A. CONCORDANCE, 413 APPENDIX B. PHONETIC KEY, 419 BIBLIOGRAPHY, 421 INDEX, 431

Illustrations and Maps

ILLUSTRATIONS Following page 258

Black Elk and Elk, London, England, 1887

Nicholas Black Elk, Anna Brings White, and Lucy Black Elk, 1910, 1930 Black Elk as a catechist, 1910, 1935

John G. Nethardt, Nicholas Black Elk, and Standing Bear, 1931 Black Elk praying to the six grandfathers on Harney Peak, 1931

Black Elk at the Duhamel pageant in the Black Hills, 1935, 1940

Black Elk at Manderson, 1947 MAPS

The Northern Plains, 1860-90, page 4 The Black Hills area, 1890, page 78 Pine Ridge Reservation, 1930, page 112

Foreword

The Sixth Grandfather is a book that needed to be written. It 1s a scholarly

work done over a period of years and with singular dedication. Because Black Elk Speaks has attracted serious attention in the United States and in many other countries, certainly a full-length scholarly work on its creation

is in order. But to Raymond DeMallie, The Sixth Grandfather has been much more than a research project. As an anthropologist, he has used his wide knowledge of the American Indian, and particularly the Lakota Sioux, both to prove a scholarly premise and to learn— insofar as that is possible in this still imperfect world—the truth. The special value of this book, to me, is this: it is an essay in understanding. Upon their first, seemingly accidental, meeting, Black Elk told Neihardt that Neihardt “had been sent” to learn what the holy man would teach him. Through an awareness we cannot fully comprehend, the old

Lakota somehow knew the essential truth about the poet; Black Elk believed that Neihardt could understand his teachings and had faith that this white man would communicate his vision to the world at large. To make the meaning of this vision a part of people’s lives was a responsibility

Black Elk felt had been placed upon him by the Grandfathers. Having himself only partially succeeded in carrying out the vision, he apparently decided to entrust it to the man who “had been sent” to him. “It 1s true and it is beautiful,” Black Elk said, “and it is for all men.” And so the interviews for Black Elk Speaks were planned. John Neihardt was well pleased with the firsthand recounting by Black Elk and the other old Lakotas of historic events and the old Sioux way of life, which cast new light on matters already familiar to him as a student of

XVI Foreword western history. Above all, the beauty and meaning of Black Elk’s vision astounded Nethardt, who felt it deserved a place among the great works of

religious literature. When Black Elk finished recounting his vision, he stated, quite simply, that all his power had now been transferred to Neihardt, who had become his spiritual son. The responsibility placed upon him was keenly felt by Neihardt. During the remainder of his life, he rarely spoke in public without referring to Black Elk. Through Neihardt’s recitations, his adaptation of “Black Elk’s Prayer” became known and loved by many. DeMallie refers in his Introduction to this bobok— as did Vine Deloria, Jr., in an introduction to the 1979 edition of Black Elk Speaks—to assump-

tions by readers and researchers that have led to controversy over the authenticity of the subject matter of the book and the importance of Nethardt’s role as its author. By the very title chosen for his book, Black Elk Speaks, Neihardt makes amply clear his desire to give full credit to Black Elk. Perhaps this title has itself contributed in some measure to the

misunderstandings. One must realize that the process beginning with what Black Elk related in the Lakota language and resulting in Neihardt’s

writing of the book was not an easy one. To a listener, the interviews seemed at times tedious, for it took painstaking effort to learn, through an uninitiated interpreter, what Black Elk was trying to say. The Sixth Grandfather may well guide the reader to a realization that at first blush seems deceptively simple: Black Elk Speaks is authentic; it does convey with faithful sincerity Black Elk’s message. But in presenting this message to the reader, Neihardt created a work of art, and true art in all its forms is an intensification and greatly clarified form of communication. In his research for this book, Ray DeMallie goes beyond the original typed transcriptions of the interview notes. Here presented for the first

time, newly transcribed and annotated, is the entire body of shorthand notes of the Black Elk—Neihardt interviews, making available a wealth of material not used in Black Elk Speaks. The Sixth Grandfather is a valuable contribution to scholarly research,

in regard to Black Elk Speaks and also as a source for students of the American Indian and ofa way of life and religion that were good. Not as a scholar, but as a believer, I commend this book warmly and affectionately as an essay in understanding. HILDA NEIHARDT PETRI

Preface

In the great vision he received when still a small boy, Black Elk saw himself

as the “sixth grandfather,” the spiritual representative of the earth and of

mankind. In Lakota religion the six grandfathers symbolized Wakan Tanka, the Great Mysteriousness, the powers of the six directions of the universe: west, north, east, south, above, and below. Understood as grandfathers, these spirits were represented as kind and loving, full of years and wisdom, like revered human grandfathers. They symbolized the six directions; but for Lakotas symbols were not merely empty signs. They expressed identity: the symbol and the symbolized were one. Thus the six grandfathers were the six directions. Black Elk became the sixth grand-

father, the spirit of the “below” direction, the earth, the place where mankind lives, the source of human life. By becoming the sixth grandfather through the vision experience, Black Elk was identified as the spirit of all mankind. And the vision foreshadowed his life as a holy man—as thinker, healer, teacher. In two important books, Black Elk Speaks (1932) and When the Tree Flowered (1951), John G. Neihardt immortalized Black Elk’s teachings, preserving them as a legacy for future generations.! Neihardt’s books are literary interpretations of what he learned from Black Elk. They preserve the details of Lakota culture and yet transcend them, securing a place for 1. John G. Neihardt, Black Elk Speaks: Being the Life Story of a Holy Man of the Ogalala

Stoux (New York: William Morrow, 1932; reprint with a new preface by Neihardt and new introduction, illustrations, and appendixes, Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1961, 1979); Neihardt, When the Tree Flowered: An Authentic Tale of the Old Stoux World (New York: Macmillan, 1951).

XX Preface Lakota religion in the ranks of recorded tribal traditions to which people in contemporary industrial society continually look for inspiration. To Lakota people today, Neihardt’s records of Black Elk’s teachings strike resonant chords that have elevated the teachings, as Vine Deloria, Jr., has suggested, to the status of an American Indian Bible. The books could also be considered an American Indian Rosetta stone, for they serve both Indians and non-Indians of today as an entrance into the traditional native American culture of the nineteenth century, a key to translation from modern American into older American Indian modes of thought. Shortly after the publication of Black Elk Speaks, Ella C. Deloria, linguist

and ethnographer and herself a Yankton Sioux, wrote to Nethardt: “I have just finished ‘Black Elk Speaks.’ I want you to know that it makes me happy and sad all at once—sad for the days that are gone, and glad that a

white man really lives who can enter into a right understanding of a Dakota’s vision, and can translate it into so poetic a form.”2 Black Elk’s teachings, from which Neihardt wrote his books, were a kind of gift from Black Elk to Neihardt, his adopted son. The first set of teachings, recorded in summer 1931, concerns the great vision that Black Elk had and the story of his life, forming a microcosm of Lakota history from the 1860s through the Wounded Knee massacre in 1890. Black Elk recognized in Nethardt a kindred mystic, and he decided to transfer to him the sacred knowledge of the other world that he had learned in the visions of his youth. The second set of teachings, recorded in winter 194-4,

covers the general history of the Lakota people from mythical times through history. Most of this material relates to the period before the arrival of white men. Neihardt requested Black Elk to tell these stories so

that he could write what he called a “cultural history” of the Lakotas, telling of their history from their own point of view. Thus the two sets of teachings are complementary. Neihardt intended his books to be interpretations of Lakota culture and history that would preserve what was good and beautiful and true in traditional lifeways. He hoped to touch his readers with the emotional power of the inexorable struggle between the advancement of white civilization across the American west and the native peoples who had lived 2. Ella C. Deloria to John G. Neihardt, March 18, 1932. John G. Neihardt Collection,

Western History Manuscripts Collection, University of Missouri, Columbia, Mo.

Preface XXl there for as long as anyone could remember. The historical force of this advancement, taken for granted in the concept of Manifest Destiny, took a bitter toll on the Indian people. Neihardt wished to bring this tragedy into focus by telling the story through the eyes of a single native person. Black Elk Speaks and When the Tree Flowered tell the same story: the former

is a Close rendering of the life of Black Elk and the latter is a freer one, based not only on Black Elk’s life and teachings, but on those of another old Oglala man named Eagle Elk. As Neihardt wrote in the introduction to the British edition of When the Tree Flowered (entitled Eagle Votce), although the story is a composite, it is authentic, “giving a comprehensive view of the old Sioux world.”3 Nethardt intended both of these volumes as contributions to American

literature, presenting for the first time in the long history of literary interpretations of the American Indian a point of view developed out of the Indians’ own consciousness. Over the years, however, the two books have been used for a variety of purposes for which they were not intended:

for historical reference, for anthropological study of Lakota culture, for psychological analysis of the American Indian personality, for philosophical understanding of tribal religions. Of course there 1s an abundance of material in the two books for such analyses, but too often writers representing these diverse academic disciplines have failed to recognize that the books were written by Neihardt, not by Black Elk, and that they bear the

stamp of Neihardt’s genius and his sense of organization and detail. To treat Neihardt as a mere editor to Black Elk is a regrettable misunderstanding that fails to do justice to Neihardt’s creative skill as a writer.# On the other hand, some authors have tended to dismiss Nethardt’s books as completely unusable for historical, anthropological, psycholog!cal, or philosophical study on the grounds that they can only be taken to represent Neihardt himself—that Black Elk was for Neihardt merely a 3. John G. Neihardt, Eagle Voice: An Authentic Tale of the Stoux Indians (London: Andrew Melrose, 1953), p. 4. 4.. Fora discussion of Neihardt’s role in writing Black Elk Speaks, and the controversy the book engendered, see Lucile F. Aly, John G. Nethardt: A Critical Biography (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1977), pp. 172-73; Sally McCluskey, “Black Elk Speaks: And So Does John Neihardt,” Western American Literature 6(4) (Winter 1972): 231-42; and H. David Brumble III, An Annotated Bibliography of American Indian and Eskimo Autobiographies (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1981), pp. 28—30.

XX Preface literary vehicle to express his own philosophy and around which to create

his private fantasy world based on Lakota culture. These authors also make a regrettable mistake, for they fail to appreciate the sincerity of Neihardt’s commitment to make the books speak for Black Elk faithfully,

to represent what Black Elk would have said if he had understood the concept of literature and if he had been able to express himself in English.

From his own perspective, Neihardt envisioned himself as Black Elk’s literary spokesman, an interpreter of the old holy man’s thoughts. Untold numbers of readers of Black Elk Speaks and When the Tree Flowered have wished to understand more fully the relationship between Neihardt and Black Elk and the role that Nethardt played as Black Elk’s amanuensis. They have also been curious to learn about Black Elk’s life after the Wounded Knee massacre. How was it that a nineteenth-century Lakota mystic could live a full half of the twentieth century on the Pine Ridge Reservation in harmony with the encroaching white man’s world? The Sixth Grandfather 1s presented in order to help readers answer these questions. The title of the book is doubly appropriate. Black Elk, in his great vision, saw himself as the “sixth grandfather,” the spirit of the earth, the power to nurture and make grow. Symbolically, Black Elk’s teachings, transmitted through Neihardt, have had a marvelous generative power: they have grown and blossomed and become an inspiration for millions, Indians and non-Indians alike. Through Neihardt’s writings, the sacred tree of Black Elk’s vision has truly come to bloom. This volume is a further contribution to the literature on Black Elk, presenting for the first time the teachings as given to Neihardt and as recorded by Neihardt’s daughters Enid and Hilda, who acted as their father’s secretaries during his interviews with Black Elk. Here are reproduced in full the notes of the interviews, the direct words of Black Elk as interpreted into English. The reader must understand, however, that these are not verbatim records of Black Elk’s words, but that they are the combined efforts of the interpreters and of Neihardt to express in English the meaning of the old man’s Lakota words. These are the most original records of Black Elk’s teachings available, and they are the sources from which Neihardt wrote Black Elk Speaks and When the Tree Flowered. With

access to this source material, readers can now compare for themselves Nethardt’s literary treatment with the full recording in the interview notes. To aid the reader in this comparison, there is a detailed discussion

Preface XXII

in the Introduction to Part I of the differences between the accounts of Black Elk’s childhood visions in the interviews and in Black Elk Speaks. Further, Appendix A, a concordance, indexes all the material in the inter-

views to the appropriate pages in the published books. In making such comparisons, it is impossible not to be struck by the brilliance and literary polish of Neihardt’s transformation of Black Elk’s tales. At the same time,

the interview notes are invaluable for supplying a wealth of detail that Neihardt was forced to omit in order to keep his books to manageable length and to make them interesting. To help readers understand Black Elk’s narratives, the interview notes have been edited with footnotes to clarify obscure points; to identify persons, places, and events; to provide comparisons between the interviews and the published books; and to give bibliographical leads for further study of specific topics. These notes are not exhaustive but are intended to help the interested reader gain a fuller appreciation of Black Elk’s teachings through comparative reading in other published sources. Part I of this volume provides a biographical sketch for Black Elk to aid the reader in gaining a fuller understanding of the man and of his relation-

ship to Neihardt. It tells the story of Black Elk’s joining the Roman Catholic Church, his experiences as a missionary on other Indian reserva-

tions, his life as a catechist, his interviews with Neihardt, and his work during his last years in presenting an interpretive pageant each summer in the Black Hills to try to teach white audiences about the old Lakota ways. Part II gives the text of the 1931 interviews, centering on Black Elk’s life story, from which Black Elk Speaks was written. The introduction discusses Black Elk’s place in the context of Lakota religious history, and it

compares the vision accounts given in the interviews and in Black Elk Speaks.

Part III presents the text of the 1944 interviews, centering on Lakota history and culture, from which When the Tree Flowered was written. Appendix A is a concordance of material in the interview notes and specific pages in Black Elk Speaks and When the Tree Flowered.

Appendix B gives the orthography used for rewriting Lakota words throughout the interview notes. The intention of this book is to allow readers direct access to Black Elk, the historical personage; to make his life more fully understandable; and

to publish at last the entirety of the teachings that he gave to John G.

XXIV Preface Neihardt. Readers will also want to consult the important teachings concerning Lakota rituals that Black Elk gave, toward the end of his life, to Joseph Epes Brown; these were published as The Sacred Pipe (1953).° Through his remarkable body of teachings, Black Elk truly lives. This is his legacy, passed on to us, the “future generations,” that we might bene-

fit from knowledge of the old Lakota world and of its sacred power, represented by the tree of his visions. As Black Elk said to Neihardt, “We want this tree to bloom again in the world of true that doesn’t judge.” A NOTE ON THE EDITING The records of Neihardt’s interviews with Black Elk in 1931 and 1944, as

well as correspondence between the two men and related manuscript material, are preserved in the Nethardt Collection, deposited in the Western History Manuscripts Collection of the University of Missouri at Columbia, Missouri. The 1931 interviews were first recorded in shorthand and the 1944 interviews were transcribed directly on a typewriter. Because of this difference, the two sets of interviews presented different editorial challenges. Neihardt’s 1931 interviews with Black Elk exist in two forms, Enid

Neihardt’s original shorthand record in four spiral notebooks and her typed manuscript, from which Neihardt wrote Black Elk Speaks. Both versions claim a kind of authenticity; although the shorthand notes are more primary, the transcript corrects obvious errors and failings that crept into the original notes owing to the press of time and to the difficult

conditions under which they were made. The text presented in Part II combines the two versions, including all information from both. My initial inclination was to publish an exact transcription of the stenographic record. But the notes from the first few interview sessions are too choppy and ungrammatical to be read easily. The notes become progressively smoother as Enid Neihardt perfected her recording system until by the middle of the interviews they are usually grammatical. Rather

than needlessly subject the reader to the difficulties of interpreting the shorthand notes verbatim, I have relied on Enid Nethardt’s transcript but 5. Joseph Epes Brown, recorder and ed., The Sacred Pipe: Black Elk’s Account of the Seven Rites of the Oglala Sioux (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1953, reprint with new preface by Brown, New York: Penguin Books, 1971).

Preface XXV have not attempted to rewrite the transcript to improve style. Rather, the text as established here reconstructs the interviews as precisely and com-

pletely as is now possible, at the same time taking readability into consideration.

In making the transcript, Enid Neihardt omitted or changed a small amount of material, usually only phrases she considered redundant, which is restored to the present text in brackets and printed in italics. The purpose of making this material explicit 1s to indicate that it was not part of the transcript from which Neihardt worked in writing Black Elk Speaks,

and thus he did not have access to it—except, of course, in memory. Parenthetical insertions are part of Enid Neihardt’s transcript. The shorthand notes continually shift from first person to third, from Black Elk

speaking directly (“I....”) to the interpreter’s description (“he says that . . .”). In preparing the transcript, Enid Neihardt converted most of these to the first person; in this book others have been changed to the first

person where appropriate. In the vision accounts and in prayers, the transcript alternates between “you” and “your” and “thou” and “thy” (the latter probably reflecting Christian prayer). These have been systematized to “you” and “your’— the forms that appear in the transcript in the great

majority of cases. Simple errors in shorthand transcription have been corrected silently. The interview material is presented largely in chronological order; this represents only minor rearrangement because Black Elk related his life story basically in sequence. Miscellaneous, nonchronological material 1s grouped together in text no. 9. Finally, headings identifying the narrator and topic have been supplied. Neihardt’s 1944 interviews with Black Elk were recorded directly on the typewriter by Hilda Neihardt. These present fewer editorial problems

than the earlier interviews. The text as established in Part III 1s taken directly from these notes. Again, I have supplied section headings. This material is presented in the sequence in which Black Elk related it, with only occasional shifting of paragraphs to keep related topics together. I felt it was important to maintain the original order of these interviews so that the reader could follow Black Elk’s developmental history of Lakota society as he presented it.

In establishing the final text of both sets of interviews, I have regularized spelling and punctuation, broken up run-on sentences, supplied paragraphing, and corrected errors in spelling. I have also silently corrected tense and number, as well as occasional obvious inversions of

XXVI Preface subject and object and slips of the pen. Minimal grammatical editing has improved readability, but whenever the meaning was in question, grammatical changes have been indicated by brackets. Other editorial additions, to identify events, persons, places, and objects, are also enclosed in brackets. Lakota terms are given in italics in brackets to clarify Enid and Hilda Nethardt’s writing of Lakota words. These retranscriptions follow the simplified orthography in Appendix B. When lengthier identification or discussion is required, that information appears in notes.

Acknowledgments

My greatest debt in preparing this book ts to Hilda Nethardt Petri. Since 1978, when I proposed to edit for publication her father’s interviews with Black Elk, she has supported my work and has helped in many ways to bring it to completion. In sharing memories of her father with me, she has made me appreciate the excitement of life with Neihardt. She has also given me a sense of the depth of Nethardt’s affection and admiration for Black Elk, and of his commitment to presenting the old holy man’s teachings to the world. Enid Neihardt Fink has also contributed in important ways to the project. Without her permission to use the private shorthand diary she kept 1n 1931 it would not have been possible for me to reconstruct

a full and accurate chronology of Neihardt’s first interviews with Black Elk. To both Hilda and Enid I express my warmest thanks. J am grateful to Nancy C. Prewitt and her staff at the Western History Manuscript Collection, University of Missouri, for their assistance in my work with the Neihardt Collection. Philip Bantin, archivist of the Bureau of Catholic Indian Mission Records, Marquette University, Milwaukee, facilitated access to archival materials from Holy Rosary Mission. Monsignor Paul A. Lenz, executive director of the Bureau of Catholic Indian Missions, gave permission to quote from these archives. Sister Roberta

Smith, archivist of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, Cornwells Heights, Pennsylvania, located mission records for study and extended cordial hospitality. Brother C. M. Simon, S.J., and Mrs. Thelma Henry provided birth and baptismal records at Holy Rosary Mission. The Venerable Vine V. Deloria, Sr., guided my translations of Black Elk’s letters written in Lakota. He and his wife, Barbara, welcomed me

XxVHI Acknowledgments into their home in Pierre, South Dakota, and transformed the work of translation into a joyful experience.

Mr. Bud Duhamel and Mrs. Emma Amiotte, both of Rapid City, South Dakota, have shared with me their memories of Black Elk, especially concerning his participation in the Duhamel summer pageant in the Black Hills. Reginald and Gladys Laubin, who also knew Black Elk at the pageant, invited me into their home in Moose, Wyoming, and likewise shared their memories. Charles E. Hanson, Jr., of the Museum of the Fur Trade in Chadron, Nebraska, recalled for me details of his meeting with Black Elk, adding a further dimension to my interpretation. Joseph Epes Brown, Professor of Religion at the University of Montana, kindly read Part I of the manuscript and gave valuable criticism and advice. Many friends and acquaintances among the Lakotas have taught me about their traditional religion and culture and have helped me to develop an understanding of Black Elk in the context of reservation life. I am grateful to the American Council of Learned Societies for a grantin-aid during summer 1980 that allowed for transcribing the shorthand

notes and preparing the final text of the interviews. The editing was completed during 1981-82 under the dual support of an American Council

of Learned Societies Fellowship (made possible by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities) and sabbatical leave from Indiana University. Father Peter John Powell of the Newberry Library, Chicago, read the manuscript, corrected some of my errors, and gave valuable advice. His unfailing faith in the project has sustained me throughout. Dr. Lucile F.

Aly, Neihardt’s biographer, shared knowledge and materials with me. Similarly, Father Michael F. Steltenkamp, S. J., who is writing a biography of Black Elk, discussed his work and shared ideas with me. Stuart W. Conner, of Billings, Montana, provided archaeological identification of petroglyph sites mentioned by Black Elk. Professor John H. Moore of the

Department of Anthropology, University of Oklahoma, interviewed Walter Hamilton, Cheyenne Sacred Arrow Priest, to obtain information regarding a Cheyenne sacred arrow ceremony described by Black Elk. To the Western History Manuscript Collection and Hilda Neihardt Petri, I am grateful for the use of photographs taken by Neihardt and his family. Harold D. Moore of the Buechel Memorial Lakota Museum in St. Francis, South Dakota, provided photographs from Father Eugene Buechel’s collection. Professor Patricia Albers of the Department of An-

Acknowledgments XXIX thropology, University of Utah, located an excellent photograph of Black

Elk at the Duhamel pageant in her incomparable collection of Indian postcards and allowed me to reproduce it. The South Dakota State Historical Society and the National Anthropological Archives of the Smithsonian Institution also provided photographs of Black Elk from their collections.

JoAllyn Archambault, Margaret C. Blaker, H. David Brumble II, Elaine A. Jahner, Harvey Markowitz, David Reed Miller, Douglas R. Parks, Brian D. F. Richmond, Joanna C. Scherer, Gloria A. Young, Kay Young, and Stephen Douglas Youngkin have all contributed in various ways to aid in the completion of this book. To them, and to the many others who have offered their support during preparation of The Sixth Grandfather, | am grateful. I offer a final special note of thanks to Rita Harper, of Bloomington, Indiana, who transcribed the shorthand notes of the 1931 interviews, as

well as Enid Neihardt’s diary and the shorthand drafts of Neihardt’s correspondence.

Nicholas Black Elk

and John G. Nethardt: An Introduction

Black Elk was born in December 1863 on the Little Powder River, probably within the present borders of Wyoming.! His father and his father’s father were medicine men whose special healing powers brought renown to the family. They were Oglala Lakotas, and Black Elk was brought up as

a member of Big Road’s band, which camped and hunted in the most westerly portion of Lakota country, beyond the Black Hills. The establishment of the Bozeman Trail through this territory in 1864 brought the Oglalas into active conflict with the white men. These hostilities continually escalated into warfare until 1877, when the western Oglala bands returned east of the Black Hills and joined their relatives on the Great Sioux Reservation in present-day South Dakota.2 The world into which Black Elk was born was the old Lakota world, as it was before the white men destroyed it—a sacred world in which the Lakota people lived in daily interaction with the seen and unseen spirit forces that comprised their universe. When he was only nine years old, Black Elk was favored by the Thunder-beings (Wakinyan), embodiments

of the powers of the west, with a great vision that foreshadowed the special powers he would have to use later in life to cure his people from illness and aid them in war. The vision gave Black Elk remarkable pro1. Throughout the introduction I do not give citations for biographical and other details taken from the interviews that constitute the remainder of this volume. 2. The history of relations between the Oglalas and the United States is summarized in George E. Hyde, Red Cloud’s Folk: A History of the Oglala Stoux Indians, rev. ed. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1957 [original 1937]), and James C. Olson, Red Cloud and the Sioux Problem (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1965).

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